SmartHealth:Growing trend of infused water adds a healthy, tasty kick to drinks; easy to make at home

By Kristen Mees
St. Elizabeth Healthcare

You may have noticed a growing trend in restaurants, stores and maybe even in your friend’s kitchen: serving infused water.

Inspired by the tried-and-true original lemon water, infused water takes it a step further by adding fruits and vegetables to water and extracting those flavors. With warm weather right around the corner, adding infused water into your daily routine is a great and tasty way to stay hydrated.

“Infused water tastes great because of the added ingredients – without the added calories and sugar of soda and juice,” says Rebecca Jilek, a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator at the St. Elizabeth Weight Management Center. “Drinking infused water can help you drink more water overall because of the great flavor.”

The benefits of water
Our bodies are 60 percent water. While we all know that drinking water helps to prevent dehydration, it can also help you feel fuller and stop false hunger that comes along with dehydration. Drinking plenty of water also is important for the body’s circulation, digestion, elimination and temperature regulation.

In general, physicians and dietitians recommend eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day, although that can vary based on age, activity level and the climate of the area you live in.

Make infused water at home
You don’t have to wait to your next trip to a restaurant to enjoy infused water – it’s easy to make at home. Follow these tips and you’ll be sipping on refreshing infused water in no time:

• Use an infusing bottle, glass pitcher or large water glass.
• Add your fruit/vegetable combination, water and then ice.
• Use cold or room temperature water – never hot water, which makes the fruits and vegetables break down more quickly.
• Let the water sit out a maximum of two hours and then refrigerate to prevent bacterial growth.

Tasty infused combinations to try
Spring and summer are great times of year to start drinking infused water with so many fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs available. If you’re ready to step out of the box and go beyond just lemon, try one of the following refreshing infused water combinations:

• Lemon and thyme
• Lemon, raspberries and rosemary
• Cucumbers, lime, strawberries and mint
• Oranges, blueberries and basil
• Watermelon, honeydew and mint

Jilek suggests cutting softer fruits like strawberries, melon and citrus in either halves or quarters. Harder fruits should be cut thinly. Softer fruits will flavor the water quickly while harder fruits will take longer – sometimes even overnight – to flavor your water. If you don’t finish the infused water within 24 hours, remove the fruit and continue refrigerating the water for up to three days.